Yes, like I said soap and water will work, and if you are judicious about oiling and heating it ever time after you wash it, you are going to mitigate the soap's effect considerably, maybe even completely. There has been debate about soap or not soap in various cast iron circles (including IDOS) probably forever. The majority still prefer not to soap their pots unless something went wrong and they are starting the seasoning process pretty much over. I have no doubt using soap will work fine for some, and I've tried it in the past without adverse effect, but I don't feel it is necessary and doesn't improve on my process for cleaning CI as it is now. That's my process, YMMV. I am by no means the final authority on the matter. I just came to the same conclusion as the majority of my peers and choose not to use soap.

Typically, I remove what food I can with utensils (not metal ones, unless I intend on a vigorous re-seasoning session). If there is a lot of food residue in the pot, I will put water in it and boil it for a bit. Depending on how stubborn the residue is, I may let it soak for a few minutes, then when it is cool enough to get my hand in I will use a plastic pot scrubber to ablate off the hopefully loosened residue. Anything still stuck to the pot at that point needs to be scorched off, so I put the dry pot on the heat and watch for the stubborn residue to carbonize or otherwise burn off. By then the pot is hot enough to swab down with a light coat of oil or grease. I keep the pot on the heat and let it go till it is pretty much done smoking. You'll have to try it a couple times to learn when it is right at that sweet spot where it is no longer tacky but not starting to flake off. Usually you can pull it off the heat while it is still smoking just a bit, and the residual heat will finish it off. Occasionally I pull it off too soon and it still has a bit of a tackiness to it, so I might put it back on the heat for a few minutes to finish it off. Generally a standard 12" skillet can be smoked off on a propane burner on med high heat in about half an hour. Figure on roughly 20-25,000 btu per pan, depending on how efficient the heat transfer from the source to the pot goes (on grills, it generally takes the higher side because of the relative distance and diffusion of the elements).

Lard is okay, but cheap shortening is probably ideal (saturated and hydrogentated actually is preferable) and will be less expensive. Once you have a new pot/pan seasoned with a few coats, you should figure on re-seasoning it once every two or three uses on average. That's about where my average is, and they will slowly improve over time so long as you don't scorch them or get too zealous with scrubbing or let food sit in the pot on the counter too long before removing it. Food enzymes work a lot like soap to loosen up the seasoning as well, acidic foods like certain fruits and vegetables or foods with a significant salt content are particularly reactive.

I don't put cast iron away with raw oil or grease on it. It invariably gets gooey and contaminated with dust etc, imparts a bad taste to the next dish, and gets oil/grease on anything the pot comes in contact with. I've not had a pot or pan rust on me while in storage on a shelf in the garage, unless I wanted it to. From my experience and correspondence with other avid Cast Iron users, the methods I use are pretty close to commonplace, but certainly not the only way folks do things.

Whew, good thing I don't eat fruits or vegetables!

... just kidding

If something is that hard to remove from my cast iron pans, I usually fill the pan with water and let it boil until it comes off easier. Scraping is done with a wood or plastic only, nothing metal. So far, it's worked for me. I understand cast iron is making a comeback. I read somewhere that modern 'no-stick' pans can give off nasty fumes if you overheat them.
Years ago, I found two really disgusting cast iron pans way back under the kitchen sink in one of the houses I bought. It looked like someone burned dinner in them 20 years ago and just shoved them in there and forgot them. They weren't damaged, just filthy, and they were Griswolds! I just had to find a way to clean them.
Somewhere I read an article about using 'electrolysis' to clean old cast iron pans. It seemed simply enough.
Hang them in a large non-conductive container (I used a plastic trash can). Fill with water and add some washing soda. Hook up to a battery charger to it, one to the pan and the other to another conductor. One is a cathode, the other is an anode, though I don't remember which is which. Turn it on, and after some time, the crud floats away. At the time, I had no battery charger, but I do have a Miller stick welder. So I turned it to it's lowest setting and hooked it up. Within half an hour the water in that trash can was close to boiling, and a layer of scum covered the water. I don't remember how long I left it go, but when I pulled it out, it was absolutely spotless and a bright shiny light gray. Virgin cast iron! I just re-seasoned them and use them at least twice a week.

You're lucky you didn't get a lovely rust collection, but oh my gods, you to took it back to the grey! The luck gods smiled on you.

Season it with beeswax it never goes rancid and will shed water and never rust. Just don't treat the outside if it comes in the house, it can mske a stickey black mess.

I've tried wax seasoning in the past, and it burns off(or evaporates?) before it volatizes properly to leave a carbon layer behind. If beeswax will cure like grease does during the seasoning process, it shouldn't be sticky when it is done, it should leave a hard shiny layer of carbon, like grease or oil does.

Raw beeswax would not only leave a honey taint in the next meal, but would also put a layer of melted wax on the top of whatever food you cooked, assuming it was applied to the inside of the pot.

Usually mfrs put a coating of food grade wax on their cast iron pots and pans before shipping, the idea being to keep them from rusting in transport and storage. The wax is removed by the end user either by washing in hot soapy water (one of the only times I would agree that soap and water should be used on a cast iron pot), or burned off on the grill or fire, which is the way I prefer to do it. The wax doesn't actually burn off, but it volatizes completely, leaving behind virtually no carbon when it is done. The metal is thus unprotected and will rust up if left exposed.

If a pot is so rusted out that it has developed scaling fissures beneath the surface, it will usually require some wire brush work at the least to get it to bare metal again. I've only seen a pot get that bad once, when someone used a camp oven as a flowerpot. It was agreed that it probably wasn't worth it to try and recover it to cook food in. Usually, the worst I see is a very badly rusted surface with maybe some food or seasoning residue, but it is all surface rust with a slight patina underneath. A good scrubbing in a hot water and soap bath (the only other time I would use soap and water to clean cast iron) will remove the surface rust, usually leaving just a light rust stain on the metal. I will grease the pot inside and out real good, then smoke it off on the fire till it is nearly all burnt off. Doing this allows the grease to actually work under the rust patina and lift it out the pores. Washing the pot in hot water again usually removes the rust stain from the pot, and I can then start a new seasoning coat on the pot. Sometimes on really stubborn stains it will take a couple of good grease burn-offs to pull all the rust out of the pores, but the end result is a pot that always comes out nearly good as new for me.

This is the simplest, most straightforward, and quickest way I know of for bringing a weathered pot back to usable form. That's why I let one of my pots get all rusty and crusty, so when I do demonstrations I can show folks how easy it is to take care of them, and how durable they are.

Electrolysis, chemical dip, a wire wheel on a drill, sand blasting or scouring, and a whole bunch of other techniques I am sure will work just as well. I prefer to keep it simple and do it like most folks have been doing for the past couple hundred years, when all they probably had was soap, grease, and fire to work with.

Ben - Thanks for the tip to season the oven at a higher temp than the manufacturer recommends. I was wondering how to fix that tackiness on my oven's surface.

You're welcome. I am a member of the 500 club over at IDOS. That means 500 degrees farenheit for an hour in the kitchen oven, or the equivalent elsewhere.

Hope it works out for you.

As I reseason with beeswax it stays "stickey" because it cools and sticks to it. It leaves a protective layer that keeps it from rusting no matter if I use lt 2 days or 2 years from when I put it away. For my rendezvous set this is a concern because it may sit all winter. It also doesn't seem to leave any discenable taste behind. I've even used the beeswax instead of oil cooking things like pancakes.
'

If you put beeswax on and it is still sticky after you have heated the iron, then it is not a seasoning layer you have applied, but just a melted wax layer, and the wax will come off into your food the next time you cook with it, unless you do something to remove it, like wash it in hot soapy water or finish the seasoning process by heating the metal to smoking and keeping it hot until the smoke is darned near gone. It is not re-seasoned until the surface is dry and shiny. Reseasoning removes all the volatile compounds from the oil/grease/wax, leaving behind only hard carbon. In the case of beeswax, there is very little carbon left behind when it is completely volatized, certainly not enough to coat the surface of the metal. If it is still sticky, it ain't done.

Wax is a good way to seal cast iron when not in use, but as per the manufacturer's recommendations, it needs to be removed prior to the pot/pan being used. If there is no seasoning layer under the wax, then the pot will not be stick resistant, and it will begin rusting once the wax is removed.

A fully seasoned ready to use cast iron pot should never feel sticky before it is used. It should feel dry and look black or darned near black and shiny. If it is sticky, then it most likely has a layer of unvolatized hydrocarbon on it which if they used grease or oil is probably rancid if it has been that way for very long. Some people find the rancid taste and smell a pleasantly nostalgic addition to the food they cook in their cast iron. The majority of experienced cast iron cooks know that this is an undesirable quality and will keep their cast iron in a well seasoned and dry condition as it is intended to be.

If you prefer to keep your cast iron cookware wet with grease, oil, or even wax, it will work to keep your cast iron from rusting up. Just realize most folks who eat food prepared thus will find the taste peculiar and often objectionable.